Waste Paper for the Blind / Elena Costelian

Waste Paper for the Blind / Elena Costelian

Prints


FA.OSS5.2205
11.7 x 16.6 in; 29.7 x 42 cm
2014
Elena Costelian
Installation piece in which individuals are invited to respond to 115 everyday slogans and phrases in English, German, and French. Printed on newsprint.

"Phrasal semantics is a linguistic theory that investigates the meaning of language expressions. The study and the comprehension of a sentence are often complex activities, because the words and the sentences can be ambiguous and because behind a sentence there are always a situation, a speaker, his intensions.

"This very research features the last work of Elena Costelian: the Art Book Waste Paper for the blind, with a title that is ambiguous, nonsense and open to different interpretations. The book, which is exhibited until the 27th of February at LAGE EGAL in Berlin, will be also present in February at Archive Books in Berlin and in New York during an initiative curated by Rachel Vera Steinberg. It gathers 115 slogans taken from the contemporary society and media that are presented individually one per page in A3 format. Keep calm, Take care, Elsewhere is here, are just some of the sentences that we absorb in our everyday life and that the artist collected in English, German and French. Waste paper for the blind is a project that wants to be a reflection on the meaning of the word and on how a specific sentence can acquire different meanings according to the context; a relevant issue in a historic moment when we are all overwhelmed by images and slogans. Which is the deepest meaning of a sentence? Which is the meaning for the artist, for me and for a public that lives in a different social context?

"Following this direction aimed to the search of sense and questioning the points of view, the artist wants to invited the public to relate with the book, through an appropriation of the slogans, ripping the pages and posting them in different metropolitan areas. The artist then will invite the public to send her the photos of the intervention, which are going to be exhibited to the public.

"The Art book for Elena is not just a nice object but a tool to invite people to a search for the meaning inside the pages themselves and in relation to the world around us." -- introduction by Laura Casarsa